Records vary on date of birth: Printed records indicate July 2, 1813, headstone indicates July 2, 1814.
Son of John & Rosamond (Hathaway) Read.
Brother of Rosamond Read.
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Captain Washington Read followed the sea fifty-two years, commencing as a cabin boy for his father when nine years of age. At the age of thirteen he commanded a sloop which plied between Fall River, Providence, and Newport, and in all sailed as master of sixteen different vessels. In the ship Caroline Read, named for his wife, (Caroline, daughter of Allen Chace), he circumnavigated the globe. Starting from New York in 1850, being then thirty-seven years of age, he doubled Cape Horn to San Francisco; thence to Singapore, thence to Calcutta, thence around the Cape of Good Hope to London, and from there home to New York. The trip occupied seventeen months. When he arrived off San Francisco circumstances compelled him to pass through the Golden Gate, a strait five miles long and one mile wide, with bold and rocky shores, in the night time, against a strong head wind. While on the quarter deck, directing the movements of his ship, his stout heart gave way, and he shed tears. His usual good fortune did not forsake him, however, and the morning found him safely at anchor in San Francisco bay. Captain Read crossed the Atlantic about seventy times, his wife accompanying him thirty-eight times. He never grounded or lost a vessel. He rescued many survivors from numerous wrecks, taking fifty-two from one wreck in mid-ocean, encountering great peril in so doing. For this he received high commendation from the Lord Mayor of London, the rescued being British subjects.
(A History of the Town of Freetown, 1902)
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From the Fall River Daily Herald, April 29, 1886:
Capt. Washington Reed, who died in Assonet on Sunday, represented the district composed of Swansey, Freetown and Somerset in the legislative session that convened in January, 1876. He had been the largest taxpayer in Freetown.
Son of John & Rosamond (Hathaway) Read.
Brother of Rosamond Read.
**********************************
Captain Washington Read followed the sea fifty-two years, commencing as a cabin boy for his father when nine years of age. At the age of thirteen he commanded a sloop which plied between Fall River, Providence, and Newport, and in all sailed as master of sixteen different vessels. In the ship Caroline Read, named for his wife, (Caroline, daughter of Allen Chace), he circumnavigated the globe. Starting from New York in 1850, being then thirty-seven years of age, he doubled Cape Horn to San Francisco; thence to Singapore, thence to Calcutta, thence around the Cape of Good Hope to London, and from there home to New York. The trip occupied seventeen months. When he arrived off San Francisco circumstances compelled him to pass through the Golden Gate, a strait five miles long and one mile wide, with bold and rocky shores, in the night time, against a strong head wind. While on the quarter deck, directing the movements of his ship, his stout heart gave way, and he shed tears. His usual good fortune did not forsake him, however, and the morning found him safely at anchor in San Francisco bay. Captain Read crossed the Atlantic about seventy times, his wife accompanying him thirty-eight times. He never grounded or lost a vessel. He rescued many survivors from numerous wrecks, taking fifty-two from one wreck in mid-ocean, encountering great peril in so doing. For this he received high commendation from the Lord Mayor of London, the rescued being British subjects.
(A History of the Town of Freetown, 1902)
********************
From the Fall River Daily Herald, April 29, 1886:
Capt. Washington Reed, who died in Assonet on Sunday, represented the district composed of Swansey, Freetown and Somerset in the legislative session that convened in January, 1876. He had been the largest taxpayer in Freetown.
Records vary on date of birth: Printed records indicate July 2, 1813, headstone indicates July 2, 1814.
Son of John & Rosamond (Hathaway) Read.
Brother of Rosamond Read.
**********************************
Captain Washington Read followed the sea fifty-two years, commencing as a cabin boy for his father when nine years of age. At the age of thirteen he commanded a sloop which plied between Fall River, Providence, and Newport, and in all sailed as master of sixteen different vessels. In the ship Caroline Read, named for his wife, (Caroline, daughter of Allen Chace), he circumnavigated the globe. Starting from New York in 1850, being then thirty-seven years of age, he doubled Cape Horn to San Francisco; thence to Singapore, thence to Calcutta, thence around the Cape of Good Hope to London, and from there home to New York. The trip occupied seventeen months. When he arrived off San Francisco circumstances compelled him to pass through the Golden Gate, a strait five miles long and one mile wide, with bold and rocky shores, in the night time, against a strong head wind. While on the quarter deck, directing the movements of his ship, his stout heart gave way, and he shed tears. His usual good fortune did not forsake him, however, and the morning found him safely at anchor in San Francisco bay. Captain Read crossed the Atlantic about seventy times, his wife accompanying him thirty-eight times. He never grounded or lost a vessel. He rescued many survivors from numerous wrecks, taking fifty-two from one wreck in mid-ocean, encountering great peril in so doing. For this he received high commendation from the Lord Mayor of London, the rescued being British subjects.
(A History of the Town of Freetown, 1902)
********************
From the Fall River Daily Herald, April 29, 1886:
Capt. Washington Reed, who died in Assonet on Sunday, represented the district composed of Swansey, Freetown and Somerset in the legislative session that convened in January, 1876. He had been the largest taxpayer in Freetown.
Son of John & Rosamond (Hathaway) Read.
Brother of Rosamond Read.
**********************************
Captain Washington Read followed the sea fifty-two years, commencing as a cabin boy for his father when nine years of age. At the age of thirteen he commanded a sloop which plied between Fall River, Providence, and Newport, and in all sailed as master of sixteen different vessels. In the ship Caroline Read, named for his wife, (Caroline, daughter of Allen Chace), he circumnavigated the globe. Starting from New York in 1850, being then thirty-seven years of age, he doubled Cape Horn to San Francisco; thence to Singapore, thence to Calcutta, thence around the Cape of Good Hope to London, and from there home to New York. The trip occupied seventeen months. When he arrived off San Francisco circumstances compelled him to pass through the Golden Gate, a strait five miles long and one mile wide, with bold and rocky shores, in the night time, against a strong head wind. While on the quarter deck, directing the movements of his ship, his stout heart gave way, and he shed tears. His usual good fortune did not forsake him, however, and the morning found him safely at anchor in San Francisco bay. Captain Read crossed the Atlantic about seventy times, his wife accompanying him thirty-eight times. He never grounded or lost a vessel. He rescued many survivors from numerous wrecks, taking fifty-two from one wreck in mid-ocean, encountering great peril in so doing. For this he received high commendation from the Lord Mayor of London, the rescued being British subjects.
(A History of the Town of Freetown, 1902)
********************
From the Fall River Daily Herald, April 29, 1886:
Capt. Washington Reed, who died in Assonet on Sunday, represented the district composed of Swansey, Freetown and Somerset in the legislative session that convened in January, 1876. He had been the largest taxpayer in Freetown.
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